WI 313 Franco-Prussian theme

[Leman]

I had been looking forward to this issue and was mightily disappointed when I finally got to look at a copy. First off, FPW in 28mm? Behave yourselves unless you have a barn at the bottom of your garden (estate?) and you run an energy company. Secondly, if you are going to showcase a period with lots of 28mm photos then get the correct figures/paintjob for the period. French artillery in bright red zouave trousers, WTF  plus the odd ACW artilleryman in SLOUCH hat! Third, what were French naval troops doing at Worth?  Now what about God's own scale for this period. There was a small box written by a Forum member with one picture of 10mm Pendraken  figures. And finally to compound everything, in the section on available figures I quote, "Another company who exhibits a similar level of detail is Pendraken WHO HAVE MANAGED TO PRODUCE A NUMBER OF VARIED PACKS. Again, army deals are available to meet every budget." That's it; no details  of what's available and no pictures on a double A4 spread. Meanwhile a fifth of one page illustrates some 28mm fantasy ogres who have come across some giant French uniforms to play in - even thyough the Guard never fought in their bearskins in 1870. Honest to God, I give up! 

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

That's a shame - I'll have to have a careful peruse in WH Smiths to see whether I really need to buy a copy.

Regards

Edward

[Steve J]

I won a 6 month subscription of WI at MaDFest and I found them to be pretty awful overall, with the odd article here and there being an exception. I've recently started getting Miniature Wargmaes and it is a much, much better magazine for a wargamer IMHO.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

The forum member was me. A rushed email as I cooked dinner, printed without edit! 
The photo is from Nik's troops at his bash last year.
I did offer to drive up with my collection for a photo shoot, but it didn't happen.
At least I got a good plug in for Pendraken!

[Leman]

And thank God you did Lemmey because their summary of the Pendraken range was dire: they MANAGED to put some packs together - bloody hell! only the most comprehensive range on the planet

[mollinary]

Sadly, I think this was an opportunity missed.  The account of the big Gravelotte-St Privat games is interesting, and some of the general material is good, but the little errors begin to grate if this is a period which already "floats your boat".  The Prussian Crown Prince is Frederick William, and he needs to be differentiated from Prince Frederick Charles, who is NOT the Crown Prince. Steinmetz's army has been shrunk to a single Corps by this stage, the rest being taken under the King's personal authority (I type from  memory, happy to be corrected). The Prussian guns are 6pdr and 4pdr, not 6pdr and 24pdr. And any serious analysis might have at least mentioned their numerical superiority at the coal face, rather than repeating the breech loader/muzzle loader superiority argument. It is great to see gamers visiting the actual fields, but it would help if the photos showed what they purport to.  The church in St Privat has moved, the original being destroyed in the battle.  The new one,  at the top of the hill, was not a scene of fighting, and the site of the old one is now marked as a military cemetery. The gate in the painting still exists there, and is nowhere to be seen in the photo. And, agreed, the treatment of the Pendraken range is little short of disgraceful.

Mollinary

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I tried guys. Honest.
Why do they never show the hills at Worth and Saarbruken?!? Worth is a massive valley and I've walked those slow, at least 1 in 5.

When you look at the web footage of Worth, the Brunswickers are deployed on one wing. When I asked about it I was told 'Try putting 800 troops on the table without getting the wrong unit somewhere!'

Erm... One of my Prussian divisions is 120 figures. A corp is 240, plus cavalry. Most of my games are two Prussian corps (500+ figures). French corps is c.700+. So 1200 figures, but for a photo shoot for a mag would I change flags, in a shot! And I put out that many for every game, ho hum!

[mollinary]

ML,

Nobody blames you. It is good for the period to get this coverage in WI.  I hope it will allow those of us with the obsession to get across a more accurate picture of this fascinating period.

Mollinary

PS. I also picked up the odd Brunswickers!   Also thought the resemblance between the Worth battlefield as shown and the real one was entirely coincidental. The Niederwald is a small copse on the table, not so in reality. Still,  that is the huge advantage we 10mm aficionados have over the 28mm crew. We can make this look real!

Mollinary

[Hertsblue]

As someone who has had the odd article published in WI, may I say that the mag is, first and foremost, about the pictures. Eye candy is everything - it's what sells the publication. Sadly, the smaller scales do not photograph as well as 28mm and therefore the chances of any pics of 10mm figures appearing, except as an afterthought, are slim. I speak as one who has submitted several articles (with photographs) that have sunk without trace - including one on the Franco-Austrian War of 1859.

In order to bulk-out the picture content of any article the editor will resort to stock photos, hence the appearance of incorrect types and anachronisms. My article on the WSS appeared with a League of Augsberg 28mm unit attached.

Incidentally, if anyone out there has photography skills to a professional standard I would be interested in getting in touch. 

[goat major]

FPW Is one of those periods that's comes alive at smaller scales. Got to agree with DP's original post - unless you are playing a Sharp Practice variant then 28mm is bonkers.

I agree that WI is all about eye candy, but I find it frustrating that they consider eye candy to be limited to close up - which means 28mm is required. Just look at the latest MW with the article on how Bruce Weigle games the FPW to see just how well eye candy can be done with small scale figures - jaw droppingly good (although it was 6mm - bah!)

[goat major]

And of course if this isn't eye candy then I don't know what is. A few scenes like is for FPW would have illustrated what you can do with the Pendraken range

http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=7302.0

[Leman]

And of course if this isn't eye candy then I don't know what is. A few scenes like is for FPW would have illustrated what you can do with the Pendraken range

http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=7302.0

Have to agree. Those photos are indeed superior to the 28mm ones in WI. We are so fortunate to have this forum to make up for the shortcomings of the commercial magazine side of the hobby. I will take a look at the MW article on Bruce Weigle if it's still out there. IMOH the best bet at the moment, as a general wargames magazine, is Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy.

[goat major]

The BW approach is to focus on the look of the overall battlefield rather than the close ups of the figures. The effect is quite stunning.

[Hertsblue]

But remember also that part of the deal is the promotion of various advertisers' wares - and the advertisers with the heaviest presence are those making 28mm and larger figures, because that's where the profit margins are. I agree completely that large battles with small figures have a grandeur of their own - it's just persuading editors and publishers that it's so.

[Leon]

Always nice to get a mention, I've got a copy of WI coming this month, so I'll have a look when the magazine arrives.  It's a shame though that they didn't get in touch if they wanted any pictures, as we've got loads of fantastic FPW pics dotted about, including the ones GM just posted above from Mollinary's book, plus ones I've taken at Salute of the games put on by them and the Realistic guys.  If I ever get to the point where I have a bit more spare time, I really want to put together some articles for the magazines, showing 10mm in all it's glory.  I can get some nice pictures taken, all edited ready for them to use, and see if we can get some more coverage.